Leader of the United Kingdom’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch, has sparked fresh controversy after likening her time at Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Sagamu in Ogun State to being in prison.
In a now-viral video clip from an interview making rounds on social media, the British politician recounted her time at the Nigerian boarding school, describing it as harsh and traumatic.
“I went to a secondary school, it was called a Federal Government Girls School in a place called Sagamu,” she said.
“And that was like being in prison. When I tell the stories about using a machete and having to fetch buckets of water…”
Badenoch, who was born in Wimbledon but lived in Nigeria during her formative years, recalled that students at FGGC Sagamu had to cut grass with machetes and clean toilets without access to running water.
“The machete was for cutting the grass… because, who else is going to cut the grass?” she stated.
“This was a federal boarding school. A dormitory with about 150 girls, 20 to 30 in a room. And there were, you know, six rooms.”
The politician painted a picture of a chaotic and self-governed environment.
“It was like Lord of the Flies, you know. The students were in control.”
Okay.ng reports that Badenoch further criticized the education model, which she described as a socialist experiment to redistribute academic excellence across Nigeria.
“Everyone who passed an exam and got a certain score got sent to a federal school… you could end up getting sent thousands of miles away. I was lucky I didn’t get sent too far away, but it was still very far from home.”
This is the latest in a string of public remarks from Badenoch distancing herself from Nigeria. She recently declared that she no longer identifies with the country of her birth and has not renewed her Nigerian passport since the early 2000s.
Her comments have sparked mixed reactions.
